Science Education: What It Takes To Be A Scientist

Motivation: We Are All Scientists Now
Anything can be science...and any detail could be important...(example: Future Perfect Moon Rock episode)

What it takes To Be A Scientist
Attention. You have to care.  Notice something.
Passion. You really get into something. Become an expert. This is more important than grades, social approval, etc.  Do you know what you're talking about?  Be Authentic.
Record.  Journal. Journaling.  Observations, names, dates. Data.
Analyze.  Logic!  Math!
Share.  This used to mean publishing in a journal.  Now it means put it on the cloud somehow: blog, social media, whatever.
Engage.  hang out with other people who share your interest.  This last step can be overwhelming and counterproductive if you skip the other steps.  Don't fit yourself to your group, find a group that fits you! This is part of growing up.

Examples of Things to Notice
shopping: prices
diet: food log
sports: hot hand
environment: observations of birds, insects, plants, plant diseases, mushrooms (need to know names!)
weather: compare forecast to observations

While doing science with humans is possible, the best thing is to get out in nature where there are unlimited questions and more freedom to ask them.  Also, nature is the origin of the traditional sciences, like geology, chemistry, astronomy, biology. 

To teach sciences like chemistry, that can seem abstract, going through discoveries, the exploratory process, alchemy, etc can be helpful. 

Teach science from the basics.  Like how chemistry discovered metallurgy, and how that was made possible by high heat.  Astronomy and biology were made possible by lenses.  Or teach botany by looking at botanical explorers from Textbook of Pharmacognosy by Wallis, T. E. (Thomas Edward).  Another way to make science relevant is by teaching practical applications, like chemistry in baking/washing clothes.

Resources

https://get21stnight.com/2019/12/27/why-introductory-chemistry-is-boring-a-long-term-historical-perspective/

science? example: https://wefunder.com/lppfusion?auto_login_token=cqcK4xYxqbRvcbLm

Questioning is part of science: Socratic Grilling  https://slatestarcodex.com/2020/03/06/socratic-grilling/

Chemistry table of smells: https://jameskennedymonash.wordpress.com/2013/12/30/table-of-organic-compounds-and-their-smells-250-smells/

Paul Krafel, author of Shifting / Seeing Nature

Paul Krafel is one of the great unsung ecological thinkers.  His original book, "Shifting", self-published in the 1980's, gained a cult following for its blending of meticulous natural history observations (i.e. the entire sequence of insect colonization of a decomposing deer over an entire season) and deep reflections on the role of humans vis-a-vis nature, work, and mind.  His book is now being republished as Seeing Nature: Deliberate Encounters with the Visible World.

He is also a founder and senior instructor at Chrysalis Charter School in Redding, CA.  He writes a series of newsletters about life at the environmental education-focussed school, as well as his continuing explorations into inner- and outer-space (see story about photos above).

Q: What is the point of Education?

Q: What is the point of Education?
A: To teach obedience and limit learning.

"The whole system was built on the premise that isolation from first-hand information and fragmentation of the abstract information presented by teachers would result in obedient and subordinate graduates, properly respectful of arbitrary orders."
-John Taylor Gatto, describing the adoption of Prussian-style education in 19th Century America.

CF. essays by Milton Friedman, David Henderson, others

notes
http://www.gracellewellyn.com
http://www.johntaylorgatto.com

good essay
http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/hp/frames.htm

http://www.preservenet.com/theory/Illich.html
www.infed.org


Many people complain about government waste, but I welcome it…efficiency is not a desirable thing if somebody is doing a bad thing.…Government is doing things that we don’t want it to do; so the more money it wastes, the better.

Nobel laureate Milton Friedman,
http://www.reason.com/news/show/118175.html

Raw Food and Raw Education -- Common Cause

Quote:

Formal education resembles agriculture. Agriculture greatly reduced the diversity of the human diet. Before agriculture, a person might have eaten 80 different foods each week; after agriculture began, far fewer. Agriculture caused a big decline in health because its fundamental assumption – it is okay to eat a small number of foods – is false or at least very hard to reconcile with nutritional requirements. Likewise, formal education (classrooms, lectures, textbooks, etc.) surely reduced the diversity of what was learned, how it was taught, and how learning was measured.

From Diversity in Learning
Seth Roberts in Ideas That Matter Quarterly, a publication honoring the civic and theoretical work of Jane Jacobs.